Gale Sail

[Tempest245]

Anyone out there own or have experience with the Gale Sail By ATN ?

It appears to be a decent compromise for being able to carry a storm jib without having to add an inner forestay on a vessel with a roller furling.

Thanks,

Tempest.

[wlearl]

I have a new (to me) 37 foot sloop with only two sails, main and 135 Genny. The foresail is on a roller furler. We are planning a fairly long trip and I am most concerned about potential storm conditions, especially things like afternoon storms. With a 135% Genny, I don't really want to be up on the deck hauling all of that sail around in a heavy wind. (My roller system makes it pretty easy to drop the jib.) I'm not very interested in another forestay, that seems to create more problems than it solves. Also, reefing the Genny by furling it part way seems like a poor answer because the sail has the wrong cut and will be too high when partially furled. I had a sailmaker actually suggest the ATN Gale Sail rather than selling me one of his storm jibs.

But, in the end, it would be great to get comments from anyone who has actually used one.

Bill

[wlearl]

Maybe this is the wrong place for this question. I'm going to repost it under sails, etc.

[Auspicious]

How do you work around the genoa sheets?

Think about being out on the bow feeding that thing, fabric over fabric, up over the furled genoa with the bow bouncing up and down and water (cold water?) washing around your feet and possibly knees. It doesn't make sense to me, but I haven't done it.

If you buy one and use it for real I'd sure like to hear how it works.

[Pblais]

If you go to the ATN Web site you can see how it works from the video. You use a spinnaker halyard to hoist it and you need jib sheets added. The sleeve fastens so it is easy to add on. The video was shot during some breezy weather but no where near gale force. If you wait for the gale to come flying a full genoa you already have more trouble than you can handle getting it rolled up. You sure would not want to have to bring down a genoa and add a new sail unless you were aware you needed to do it well before hand. Reefing is still best done early.

In a gale I wouldn't go up to the end of bowsprit but I would add it long before it got that bad. The ATN seems like a decent solution. We have a cutter and the stay sail is on a roller furling. I've been able to reef that in gale force winds and it does pretty well. It's still not easy to pull in a sail with that much wind. It's not that big for a sail so the reefing makes it still well shaped.

Inner forestays can be a pain to tack the genoa through depending on the width of the slot and the size of the genoa. In a lot of wind however they tack easy. A removable inner stay with a hanked on sail would be the alternative. I think you would find the gale sail more economical. The hardware adds up for a inner forestay and you still need a sail and takes more work to set.

[Auspicious]

Originally Posted by Pblais

A removable inner stay with a hanked on sail would be the alternative.

That was my choice. Offshore I keep my 100% working jib on the furler, the inner forestay rigged, and the staysail hanked on and bagged. After furling the jib from the cockpit, it takes just a couple of minutes to walk (or crawl) forward to pull the bag off the staysail and hoist it. I'd likely be at the mast anyway to put the third reef in the main, so no big deal.

Inshore I'm likely to have the 135 genoa on and the inner forestay stowed at the mast. As winds increase I reef the genoa accepting that much below 100% even the padded luff doesn't preserve the shape. Inshore there are options like motoring or anchoring that aren't viable offshore.

YMMV. This works well for me.

sail fast, dave
S/V Auspicious

[wlearl]

I'm not expert at rigging as you may be able to tell but I've done enough physics in my life to be a little uneasy about rigging another forestay. That would change a lot of the forces on the other standing rigging and the mast. And, you are going to ask it all to work well under the worst (storm) conditions. So, I thought about rigging an inner forestay a month or so ago and gave the idea up in a hurry.

I agree, one had better reef early. I'm not thinking of changing sails in a 40 kt wind but screwing around with a big Genoa in 15 kt winds can be a real muscle workout.

Bill

[Auspicious]

Originally Posted by wlearl

I'm not expert at rigging as you may be able to tell but I've done enough physics in my life to be a little uneasy about rigging another forestay. That would change a lot of the forces on the other standing rigging and the mast.

Yep. On my boat I have running backstays directly behind the landing point of the inner forestay. The design came from German Frers, HR, and Selden. Works fine, and also has helped me squeeze into some smaller travel lifts (drop backstay and hold mast aft with running backs.

sail fast, dave